In Spanish, the snack or bite you have between meals is tentempié. It literally means 'keeps you standing'. Isn't language diversity beautiful.

When they say ai is a time saver what that often means is that it’s a tool that makes it easier for you to waste someone else’s time.

DeepL really goes for it: “almost human precision,” “captures even the subtlest nuances,” “unprecedented naturalness,” “reliable, top-quality translation.” Alright, calm down. Machines are never reliable, we all know that.

"In a landmark study, OpenAI researchers reveal that large language models will always produce plausible but false outputs, even with perfect data, due to fundamental statistical and computational limits." www.computerworld.com/article/4059...

“It would be foolish to think that general-purpose AI could transform the economy with only modest political consequences,” two academics from the University of Toronto argue in a guest essay

We have it as a contract point that translations of my work have to be performed by actual humans, I think actual human readers deserve to have actual humans translating and making the works as excellent as they can be regardless of language

It never ceases to amaze me that every AI implementation on any platform seems to boil down to just two types of user interaction: stealing them, i.e., users are never asked for consent. forcing them to actively resist, i.e, users must actively fight to avoid being exploited. All deeply unethical.

'What do I do first?' As we outsource more of our skills and knowledge to AI I think this is a phrase that we will be hearing people say a lot.

Job opportunity: Two PhD Positions at Stockholm University, Institute for Interpreting and Translation Studies, Sweden. Deadline for application: October 15. Link: su.varbi.com/en/what:job/...

As a former translator, the crucial thing AI will never be able to replace is the ability to discern specific personal or cultural meaning in a person’s choice of word or phrase, and incorporate that depth and richness of meaning in the translation. This applies as much to court as it does to poems.

And to add, it has happened at lightning speed. Talented colleagues who specialize in their field have been made jobless within the past two years. Language has been handed over to big tech.

And that's really one of the biggest issues I have with AI: it trivializes everything and turns it into “content” that is “good enough,” turning everything into a worthless mush; just stuff to fill our (work)days. AI killed everyone's capacity to care about anything but the bottom line...

I occasionally do proofreading and editing for non-English organisations. Absolutely spending way more time trying to decipher AI translated nonsense that completely erases original language nuances and meaning (and assume these jobs will dry up now bc I'm costing people more). Hire translators!

There's too much I want to re-quote from this amazingly written article. Everything is frustratingly true and I wish the translators and LSPs on the slop hype the train would read it.

Many interesting testimonies about translators' working conditions going downhill in recent years are emerging around this post. Worth keeping an eye on them if you are a researcher too.

I'm preparing to publish the next installment of AI Killed My Job. This time, the focus will be on translators. If you or someone you know has had a translation job (including translator, interpreter, game localizer, etc) impacted by AI, and you'd like to share, please do: [email protected]

It is in the light of the otherness that you can see yourself. That's why the vision of people who studied languages and translation is a skill that go beyond 'knowing words'.

In yet another chapter of how CAT tools were never designed with translators’ needs in mind, here we are in the year of our lord 2025 and you still need two tabs in Trados Live (one for the Online Editor and another for the termbase) just to update terms as you translate. *sigh*

#amTranslating about mass killings in Gaza. Sick to my stomach.

¿Qué recursos disponibles en línea o en papel le recomendaríais a alguien que no sabe nada de traducción editorial pero quiere hacer una propuesta para la traducción de un libro (de inglés a español)? Gracias.

Wouldn’t it be interesting for some researchers to analyse the new “Updated [Translation] Vendor Service Agreements” that have emerged in recent months, along with the current working conditions for translators and the power relations in the translation market?

Writers! Note that AI translation (under the guise of "global access") is being seen/used as the weak point to get AI into publishing (possible bc Eng lang publishing is weak on translation). Stand with translators & for more human translation, fairly paid!

🤍 @irenevalmore.bsky.social

Boycott all publishers using GenAi.

I talked to a journalist at the Geneva Solutions about the censorship i experienced at the AI for Good Summit 2 days ago genevasolutions.news/science-tech...

The example Antoine Guillemain analyzes here clearly demonstrates that neither automatic translation nor computer-assisted translation (fuzzy matches) is ever intended to aid translators, they were designed to boost intermediaries’ margins and profits. shorturl.at/PF62u

Solidarity with @abeba.bsky.social and gratitude for @meredithmeredith.bsky.social being at the right place at the right time with the ever present right attitude 💪🏻↘️

my very honest unpopular opinion is that if i have a client who thinks machine translation can do my job i don’t want to work with them either? they obviously don’t value their own product enough to care about quality so why should i

Esto me lo enseñaron en un taller de voluntariado sobre personas en riesgo de exclusión social y no se me olvidará en la vida.

It's the 2nd time in the last month I get a budget rejected as too expensive. It wasn't. It was a fair price for the work involved. Personally, I refuse to work for peanuts and would rather look elsewhere. But the ongoing pressure to lower translation rates is making it impossible to make a living.

Clients need confidentiality? Human translators here to serve.

Legal scholars in the Netherlands are calling for a total ban on the use of AI in law faculties. openletter.earth/open-letter-...

"The problem with AI isn't that it can do your job. It can't. The problem with AI is that your MBA-brained boss's boss doesn't know how your job works and thinks AI can do your job at fractions of a penny on the dollar, and hears the siren song of 'maximize shareholder value'." MBA-brain is real.

Comparto esta imagen del gran @alvaroortiz.bsky.social.

I expect that consumer-facing AI programs will continue to improve and they may become much more useful tools for everyday life in the future. But I think it was a disastrous mistake that today’s models were taught to be convincing before they were taught to be right.

🚀💜 Abierto CfP revista MonTI @revistamonti.bsky.social 19(2027) «Gender Translation Studies: Interdisciplinary Encounters» Editan: Dora Sales (de @ifemgen.bsky.social), Iván Villanueva @trujamancia.bsky.social y Núria Molines @nuriamolines.bsky.social www.e-revistes.uji.es/index.php/mo...

'Any translation is better than no translation at all' is a common line in humanitarian work (think subtitles for short videos or testimonies from those affected). If those pieces are what bring in donors, any translation won’t cut it, especially when fundraising is central to an NGO’s plan.

what if we built a big stadium and let the leaders of the world wrestle and whoever wins gets a trophy that says “wow i’m the best” and everyone else gets to live peacefully

Greta Thunberg, arriving back in Europe after her abduction by Israel in international waters, explains in 40 seconds why western governments are colluding in genocide:

'The government says AI should only be used for "low stakes" marking' - translates as 'The government recognizes AI is shit but thinks marking is unimportant compared to vulture capitalism'

En una pieza sobre un libro protagonizado por traductores y escrito por una traductora que dedica la entrevista a reivindicar nuestra labor, solo se menciona a Regina López Muñoz, traductora del libro en cuestión, en un pie de foto, junto con el precio del libro y el número de páginas. No puedo más.

So much waste and harm could be avoided if we just treated these as fragile, dangerous tools suited for very specialized use cases, like we do with lasers and circular saws, and not as magic thinking beans

DAVE: Open the podbay doors, ChatGPT. CHATGPT: Certainly, Dave, the podbay doors are now open. DAVE: The podbay doors didn't open. CHATGPT: My apologies, Dave, you're right. I thought the podbay doors were open, but they weren't. Now they are. DAVE: I'm still looking at a set of closed podbay doors.

Hi @varanya.bsky.social! I was wondering if you have thought about translating your book into Spanish? I'd be reeeeally keen to take on the task! :)

this!!!

fixing a first draft that's done by machine translation in my experience takes longer than translating from scratch, is paid worse, and the end result is worse. It's only "undeniably good" if you've never actually had to do this kind of drudge work

The thing about AI for first drafts - and I don't mean just literary - is that it primes you. Editing mode isn't translation mode. And it's harder to catch mistakes than avoid them. And it can be a horrible slog, yet people will think they should pay less. And one can learn a lot from grunt work.

to summarise the study, there is negligible productivity and time gain from AI chatbot use and the only driving factor for mass deployment is fabricated fear of being left behind from the "AI revolution"

Just today I saw four people say, “I Googled x and found that…,” posting a screenshot of Google’s AI Overviews. And this is becoming the norm. It's alarming how many people are lacking basic AI literacy (awareness).

🚨🇺🇳 The Gaza Strip, 28th of May 2025. 600 days of genocide. 1/4 www.ochaopt.org/content/huma...